StormJH1

When the Wings first signed Brunner, some media people took to derisively calling him "Fabian Brunner", referencing Dallas (and later Detroit) player Fabian Brunnstrom.  Brunnstrom had a hat trick in one of his early games, and 17 goals in a 55-game season.  He quickly burned out afterwards and is now overseas.

 

At first, the Brunner comparisons to Brunnstrom looked ridiculous.  Brunner looks quite skilled and is comfortable with the puck.  He's also a right-handed shot, which is a valuable commodity on the Wings.

 

But since then, (and despite a respectable 11G/11A overall), things haven't been as good:

 

http://sports.yahoo....8_l7qQFX.xivLYF

 

Other than the 8-3 Vancouver game (which was just a complete collapse), can you find an "elite" performance in there?  He went over a month without scoring a goal, despite being a fixture with Zetterberg or on one of the top two lines (and a lot of power play time). 

 

I want Damien Brunner back, for sure.  But how do you value him?  This guy looks kind of like Jiri Hudler to me.  He looks like one of those guys who has a whole box of tools, but doesn't have that ability see what's going to happen one or two seconds later on the ice, like the great scorers and playmakers do.  A two- or three- year deal for a modest amount ($2.5 million per?  $3 million per?) might be the best for both the Wings and Brunner at this point, though that does leave him a UFA at age 30, which might make it hard for him to ever cash in on that long-term big deal.

Buried in a Freep story about Ian White's eventual return was this nugget from Babcock about Gustavsson:

 

http://www.freep.com...1046/1053/rss17

 

And as for backup goaltender Jonas Gustavsson and his groin injury, "There doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. Whitey is the only one making any noise."

 

Obviously, groin injuries are a big deal for goaltenders, but this is starting to sound like months, not weeks.  Unfortunate because McCollum is not ready by any stretch of the imagination, MacDonald's got that back injury dating back to 10 months ago, and the Wings schedule in February will be BRUTAL.  I count 8 games that are back-to-back and many others on two days rest.  So that's at least 4 games that Monster probably would've played for Howard.  Seriously, any type of injury to Howard right about now, and this season could come off the rails in a hurry.

The purpose of this thread is not to troll Jordin Tootoo as a hockey player or a person.  I've done that in the past, but the season has started now, and Tootoo is player for the Red Wings, like it or not.

 

But given that he played all of 6:57 out of a 65-minute game last night, I really wonder what his role is supposed to be on this team.   We all saw the fight at the start of the game.  Perhaps you believe that Jordin Tootoo being willing to more or less get his face beat in for his new team "inspired" the Wings to badly out-shoot Columbus in the early going.  I'd like to think that after a 6-0 embarrassment against a division rival on Saturday, this team is professional enough to come out stronger next game, with or without the fisticuffs.

 

But Tootoo is not an "enforcer" like John Scott.  He's not even really a "fighter" - more of a pest.  And as a avowed Tootoo hater, I thought he actually had some good shifts later in the first, got some shots on net, and showed some of the "pestiness" he was supposedly hired for.

 

My point is this: If Tootoo isn't going to play on special teams, and is basically a 4th liner who won't see time in one-goal games, is that the best use of a $1.9 million AAC acquisition?  I understand there were an absurd number of penalties yesterday.  But is this an anomaly, or is Jordin Tootoo regularly going to play less minutes than a guy like Emmerton?

Can we all just agree right now that the 2012-13 lockout did nothing to stop what happened after the 2004-05 lockout, and that mid-level players will continue to be badly overpaid?  

I've heard people reference the Zajac contract (8yrs/46 mil) as proof that the new CBA is working.  Working how, exactly?  Just because the new contracts won't be longer than 8 years and won't have crazy variances where the amounts tail off at the end doesn't mean we're rid of dumb contracts.

 

Dumb contracts happen because the less-financially stable hockey clubs hover near the cap floor, which is 15 - 20 million below the cap ceiling.  As soon as they lose a big-salary player to retirement, expired contract, or trade, they are pressured by both the fans and the cap floor itself to spend money quickly on whatever is available.  The Devils don't have many long-term contracts outside of Kovalchuk, and Brodeur's deal is coming off the books after this year or next, in all likelihood.  

 

Backdiving contracts were ONE way in which players costs went up, but really, they only affected a small percentage of super long deals, and those are usually with very desirable players that are worth the risk.  The mid-level contracts are what continues to destroy the game, and that was even the case before the '04 lockout (Marty Lapointe's deal and the like).  This fact will become increasingly evident as we know the cap is going down next year, yet we'll still see big deals and re-signings like this all over the league.  I'm not sure exactly how you fix it (other than thinning out the league so that virtually all of its members could at least afford spending to the Cap), but I don't want any illusion that the CBA "fixed" it.

Did I miss something here?

http://octopusthrowe...ings-captaincy/

I don't live in the Detroit area and haven't given too much though to actual HOCKEY with all of the lockout crap going on, but wasn't it basically a foregone conclusion that Zetterberg was the next captain? (Then again, people once said that Marty Lapointe was going to be the next captain of the Red Wings too).  

Is this just one idiot blogger speculating wildly, or is there any truth to this?